Advocates for books that matter.

Benjamin Taylor

“A marvel of a book—elegant, touching, singular.” —Mary Karr

“Historic and cultural incidents dot the crackling narrative . . . Taylor, a lyrical wordsmith, broadens the usual boundaries of memoir writing with his analysis of time and childhood . . . In this skillful blend of dialogue between youth and maturity, Taylor sums up the value and quality of the years of his treasured past and unforgettable present, while stressing the sanctity of life.”-- Publishers Weekly

“Taylor’s endeavor is not to explain the life by the novel or the novel by the life but to show how different events, different emotional upheavals, fired Proust’s imagination and, albeit sometimes completely transformed, appeared in his work. The result is a very subtle, thought-provoking book.”—Anka Muhlstein, author of Balzac’s Omelette and Monsieur Proust’s Library

"At 166 pages, The Book of Getting Even is a mortar shot of a novel — the trajectory is steep, the narrative moves at tremendous velocity and the book ends with a bang. Yet it also is a bittersweet and redemptive love story, richly decorated and recounted with the deepest insight and compassion for the workings of the human heart. . . . At the end, we are sadder but wiser, and yet somehow comforted too — signs that we are in the hands of a gifted storyteller." — Los Angeles Times (A Best Book of the Year)